We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

There's a Black PresidentThere's a Black CongressmanThere's a Black Chief of PoliceThere's a Black District AttorneyThere's a Black Mayor until 2014 (Jailed)There's a Black Officer who pulled a triggerThere's a Black Man Dead of that gunshot wound

For inexplicable reasons, the Left believes that the violence wrought by angry minorities will benefit them, so they encourage it. They subsidize it. Obama has given his not-so-tacit permission to riot every time one of these tragic events occurs, from the Henry Louis Gates minor incident, to the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, the Dallas officers. And now BLM is rolling in money, $100m from "social justice" organizations. Soros gave them $33m.

Re sprawl: "Chuck Marohn at Strong Towns has shown that the low density, car-dependent development that has typified American cities since World War II does not produce enough tax revenue to service the debt that cities took out to build the infrastructure needed for sprawl." Now, this made me laugh. Suddenly we're supposed to care whether cities have a sustainable tax system in light of economic realities? But the only factor worth considering is transportation infrastructure that everyone is equally entitled to use? No need to think about crony deals for stadiums or public pension bloat? Blue cities are drowning in financial (and other) chaos all over the country, but I don't think it's because of their citizens' freedom to avoid population density.

I paid New York city and state income taxes for years, though I've always lived in Texas. Benefits of belonging to a partnership with a NY office. Not a little symbolic payment, either, but a whopping big check.

Re the home invaders: I had the same reaction as many of the commenters: well done, but weren't you itching to get her to reload and secure the scene? There were at least 3 home invaders, and I didn't see her count and disarm 3 indisputably dead-as-doornail youths who needed to turn their lives around.

Glad to see she and her friend were safe after her confrontation with the gun. Wonder if the guy was really a heavy sleeper or just plain scared as it appeared the intruders went into the guys bedroom. Hopefully they won't go after her for shooting out the door as you know "that was really mean, they were running away". Good for her!

This demonstrates why we all need to be arming ourselves in this era of lawlessness. She fortunately killed one, but there are still two others out there preying on other people. No one is safe as criminals become bolder and bolder. People need to be defending themselves.

The ‘Fingerprint’ Of Global Warming Doesn’t Exist In The Real World, Study Finds

Even a cursory look finds several problems with the paper that would probably have to be revised before publication. For instance, the tropical tropospheric hot spot is a result of the adiabatic lapse rate, which can be due to any warming, regardless of cause; hence, it is not a fingerprint of CO2 warming. The footnote they provide refers to an article which says the actual relationship is complex due to large-scale circulation patterns.

The claim is that the tropical tropospheric hot spot is a fingerprint of CO2 warming. That is incorrect. As the claim forms the basis of a primary claim of the paper, it means the paper needs some work before publication in a scientific journal.

There are other problems with the paper, but you might start with that claim first.

Black America does NOT have a race problem, they are just getting stupid. Years ago now, I grew up around many lower middle class blacks, but they maintained two-parent homes, smallish families, steady work, regular church attendance and a garden wherever they could find soil.

Now all I see is very highly educated blacks filling every news show discussing how the system screws them. The latest meme was a black professor insisting that "it was not capitalism with it's respect for the individual and property rights that first made America great; it was slavery! The role of capitalism is a myth." We white folks started a whole new country on the hard work of the slaves.

Well, from what I can figure out, only 8% of the population had slaves as it was a rather expensive proposition. And much of the work came from indentured people who were so anxious to escape famine, lack of property rights and disrespect of the law that they were willing to sign such a contract for a ship ride to the New World. Plus, iife is not working too well for those blacks in Africa who -- along with the Arab populations -- are still maintaining slavery and face real poverty that lacks food stamps, free healthcare, tax-supported housing and Obama phones.

We have plenty of blacks in this country who are millionaires or well on their way. They just don't like hanging around with the brothers and sisters who don't make good choices and fail to appreciate the opportunities available to anyone who has the entrepreneurial spirit.

True enough. A few people owned a lot of slaves, some owned a few, and many owned none. Nonetheless, slaves represented the single largest portion of wealth and production of the South. Jma was arguing that slavery was not economically significant, which was clearly not the case.

"In 1861, the population of the Union was 18.5 million. In the Confederacy, the population was listed as 9 million, with 5.5 million free and 3.5 million enslaved. In the Border States there were 2.5 million free inhabitants and 500,000 enslaved people."
https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm

26.5 million free people
4 million enslaved
---

13% of the total population was enslaved in the US and the border states combined.

In the South about 25% of white people owned slaves - 1.4 million. So 5% of the total US population in 1861 owned slaves.

Fully 82% of the US and territories population in 1861 were neither enslaved nor did they own slaves.

Not only that, but slavery didn't do wonders for the economy of any region where it was endemic. In contrast, capitalism turned the U.S. into the richest country on earth, and even the South developed a fine economy after it ditched slavery. But I don't think they teach economics (or even clear reasoning) at Grievance University--which is the real grievance guys like that ought to be chapped about.

Texan99: Not only that, but slavery didn't do wonders for the economy of any region where it was endemic.

No. It tended to make some white people lazy. Ironically, they would complain about lazy blacks, while bragging about their accomplishments. It was sort of like a welfare program for rich white folk, paid for on the backs of slaves. They got "even" after the Civil War, blaming blacks for their troubles.

Texan99: In contrast, capitalism turned the U.S. into the richest country on earth, and even the South developed a fine economy after it ditched slavery.

After the Civil War, the South's production remained primarily agricultural, and industrial development lagged behind other regions of the country, at least until the federal electrification programs of the New Deal. The South didn't fully recover until the end of Jim Crow, which allowed it to tap into the full potential of its people.

Slavery was a significant economic factor in the early days, when the U.S. was primarily an agricultural nation. It certainly wasn't the only factor, though, which included open markets, maritime trade, as well as vast resources (often taken by force, as from Native Americans and Mexico).

This is the most dangerous of all. Apathy has allowed the Ontario Liberal government to create a Cap n Trade tax that sucks 1.9 billion out our economy that is given to those who did not earn it and do not deserve it, at the expense of those who do.

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